My 8.5 year old Lumina has been pretty trouble-free. Hubby's Impala has not, and it's got 3.5 fewer years than mine. (Many more miles, though.) It's been irritating since months after purchase. A semi-lemon? When he'd take it in to the dealer, they weren't as understanding as the Mir would like. And that's when I started to wobble on "Buy American." And when we took it to another Chevy dealer for some repairs, and they actually left too little coolant in the car after a radiator flush, well, I started getting really ticked.

So, I told the apple of my eye to, this time, consider Japanese. I had researched the Consumer Reports and most reliable, etc, and kept coming up with two contenders: Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

Hubby had originally set his heart on a Passat, but I said that German has gone down, not up, in terms of German auto perfectionism. He researched the VW Passat and realized he needed to take a pass on it. The numbers and customer satisfaction rationgs=not that great.

So, here we are, feeling weird, maybe a scosh unpatriotic. It's hard to shake one's upbringing. Hey, I'm the one who pays extra for work-out clothes made in the USA (more expensive than foreign-made), and who complained to a Sports Authority manager that I couldn't find a fricken non-Chinese-made athletic shoe! (I got a couple pairs of New Balance.) And why, if they pay Chinese workers crap, are the shoes seventy-five bucks and up, anyway? (I guess to pay those celebrity endorsers and free-wheeling execs?)

Yeah, there ya go. The gal who used to "look for the union label" has a Honda in the garage. I hope the reports are true and it's reliable and keeps my beloved safe for at least 8 years to come, if not more. (We don't like turning cars over quickly. Hubby kept one of his until it was 11 years old. I'm hoping my Chevy keeps running smoothly at least to 9.5 years or more.)

On the plus side, he got a really, really good deal on a better package than we had settled on. He got a better-rated car than the Impala, with more sweet extras, at less than he paid for the Impala in 2001. So, the hubster is muchly pleased.

And that makes ME happy. The 10K down hurt, but the small monthly financing bill won't. :)

About Me

I'm a middle-aged, Cuban-American, Christian married gal living in a hot, crowded town prone to being smacked around by tropical storms and hurricanes. I've pretty much stopped writing, but I suspect that I will need to start again, as the itch always returns....